dailypharmkorea

Company
Domestic Rx sales are showing strength in H1
by An, Kyung-Jin Jul 21, 2021 05:51am
Lipitor Pfizer's treatment for dyslipidemia ranked first in outpatients in the first half of the year. Drugs developed with domestic technologies such as "Rosuzet" and "Zemimet" led by HK-Inoen's "K-CAB" have increased their market influence despite the chaos of COVID-19 outbreak. The originals of multinational pharmaceutical companies, which once had sales, have stagnated since the expiration of patents. According to UBIST, a pharmaceutical research agency on the 19th, Pfizer's Lipitor topped the list with a cumulative prescription amount of ￦86.5 billion in the first half of this year. Lipitor (Atorvastatin) is a treatment for dyslipidemia, which was introduced to the domestic market in 1999 by Pfizer Korea. Since the expiration of the patent, insurance drug prices have fallen by half and more than 130 generics have been released, but they are still showing strong sales in the prescription drug market. Except for 2017, it has topped the prescription list for the past 10 years. Viatris, which was launched in November last year with the merger of Upjohn and Mylan, which have been in charge of Pfizer's patent-expired drugs, is in charge of sales. However, looking at the quarterly performance, the upward trend has slowed somewhat since COVID-19 outbreak began in earnest. By 2019, the average amount of Lipitor prescription per quarter was close to ￦48 billion, but the average of last year was barely over ￦46 billion. This year's performance was ￦43 billion in the first quarter and ￦43.5 billion in the second quarter, which is not up to its peak performance. The cumulative amount of prescriptions for the first half of the year decreased by 8.1% from ￦94.1 billion a year earlier. The prolonged COVID-19 situation is believed to have been affected by the contraction of hospital visits and the overall foreign prescription market. During the same period, Hanmi's Rosuzet ranked second in prescriptions, with outpatient prescriptions rising 13.8% year-on-year to ￦53.4 billion. Rosuzet is a combination drug composed of Ezetimibe and Rosuvastatin. Since its release in late 2015, it has ranked first in the market among the same ingredients. Analysts say that Hanmi's strategy to enter the composite market before its competitors was effective as it secured Ezetimibe license from patent holder MSD. Sales of Rosuzet rose more than 10% year-on-year every month even at a time when face-to-face sales marketing activities were severely restricted due to COVID-19 last year. In the second half of last year, the monthly prescription amount exceeded ￦8 billion, surpassing Gliatamin as the second-largest outpatient prescription. This year, the company set its own record of ￦9.4 billion in monthly prescription amount, narrowing the gap with No. 1 Lipitor. Sales of Daewoong Bio's Gliatamin was ￦46.3 billion in outpatients in the first half of last year, down 3.5% from a year earlier. Gliatamin is generic of the brain functional enhancer Choline alfoscerate. The government has received two sanctions, including a reduction in benefit. However, Gliatamin's influence in the prescription drug market remains robust. The competition item, Chongkundang Gliatirin, increased 0.4% year-on-year to ￦40 billion in outpatient prescriptions over the same period. The amount of outpatients for K-CAB in the first half of the year increased 47.8% year-on-year to ￦45.4 billion. If the current trend continues, it is predicted that the amount of outpatients will easily exceed ￦100 billion by the end of the year. K-CAB (Tegoprazan) is a flagship product of HK Inno.N (formerly CJ Healthcare), which is about to be listed. It is a new type of anti- ulcer drug called "P-CAB," which competitively combines proton pumps and potassium ions located in the final stage of acid secretion in stomach wall cells, thus inhibiting gastric acid secretion. Sales of K-CAB rose to ￦5 billion in the first year of its release, compared to ￦1.7 billion in monthly prescriptions. It secured gastrointestinal reflux disease as its first indication, and added gastrointestinal ulcer treatment in July of the same year. In the first half of this year, when most of the drug performance was sluggish, it rose to fourth place in prescription, threatening third-place Gliatamin. The joint sales strategy with Chong Kun-dang, which has a differentiated mechanism from the existing PPI. The increase in prescriptions for products developed by domestic companies was noticeable. The amount of outpatients for LG Chem's diabetes combination drug Zemimet in the first half of this year was ￦41.1 billion, up 8.4% from the previous year. Zemimet is a second compound that combines Metformin with Zemiglo (Gemigliptin), a new diabetes drug developed by LG Chem. It has been co-selling with Daewoong Pharmaceutical since 2016. Due to changes in the diabetes treatment market, which prefers multi-drug prescriptions, it has surpassed the performance of Zemimet. In the top 10 outpatient Rxs, sales of prescriptions for the past six months have fallen. The amount of outpatient prescription for Sanofi's anti-thrombotic drug Plavix was ￦44.8 billion, down 2.3% from the previous year. Boehringer Ingelheim's hypertension combination drug Twynsta and Gilead Science's hepatitis B treatment Viread fell 8.1% and 6.7% in the first half, respectively. AstraZeneca's treatment for dyslipidemia, Crestor, decreased 9.2% from the previous year to ￦38.8 billion in the first half of the year, ranking among the top 10 outpatients Rx.